Nachshon’s Leap: A Passover Journey Through Time

Bryan Schwartz

Nachson, the Time Travelling Hero of the Red Sea Crossing

At every Passover Seder, as we recount the Exodus, we travel through time—reliving slavery, liberation, and the hope of redemption. Yet the Haggadah omits many heroes, including one vivid figure from Jewish lore: Nachshon ben Amminadab, the prince of Judah who dared to step into the Red Sea. How does Nachshon’s story connect past, present, and future?

The Haggadah’s Collective Call

The Haggadah is strikingly silent on Israel’s leaders. Moses, the Exodus’ towering figure, appears only indirectly in the Hallel Psalms (Psalm 114:8, hinting at Exodus 17:6, where God provides water). Joseph, who saved his family (Genesis 41–50), and Aaron, the first High Priest (Exodus 28:1), are absent. Jacob, renamed “Israel” (Genesis 32:28), emerges vaguely in the Arami Oved Avi section (Deuteronomy 26:5), reflecting ancestral hardship. Why the silence? The Haggadah celebrates the collective covenant—all Israel as a “nation of priests” (Exodus 19:6), bound to God directly and not through elites.

Liberation comes through partnership: God’s power and the people’s faith, baking unleavened bread in haste (Exodus 12:39). The Haggadah quotes God’s declaration: “אני ולא מלאך, אני ולא שרף, אני ולא שליח, אני ה’ הוא ולא אחר”—“I and not an angel, I and not a seraph, I and not a messenger, I the Lord, it is I and no other” (Mechilta d’Rabbi Ishmael). Deliverance unites God and all the Israelites who left Egypt together. The Haggadah says that we celebrate Passover as if we, today, were there.

Nachshon Plunges Forward

And yet after biblical times, early in the Talmudic era, the rabbis imagined a human hero at the Red Sea: Nachshon ben Amminadav. His name—perhaps from “nachshol” (wave), evoking the sea’s surge, and “Amminadav” (from “nadav,” to offer willingly, Exodus 25:2)—suits his courageous plunge into the waters. The Talmud (Sotah 36b–37a) paints a dramatic scene: with Pharaoh’s army closing in (Exodus 14:9–10), the tribes hesitate. Nachshon, Judah’s prince, wades into the sea—ankles, knees, waist, neck—until the waters split at his nostrils, prompting God’s command to Moses: “Tell the children of Israel to go forward” (Exodus 14:15).

Where did the Rabbis find Nachshon? It is unlikely that they drew on an oral transmission stretching back to the actual Exodus. If such a tradition existed, it likely would have been included in the written account in Exodus. Rather, the Rabbis probably found Nachshon in the text of the Hebrew Bible, compiled about half a millennium after the Exodus. Nachshon’s leap symbolizes faith that moves history.

Anchored in Scripture

Nachshon appears in the Torah as Judah’s chieftain, leading sacrifices and marches (Numbers 7:12), and in Judah’s genealogy (Ruth 4:18–20). He is also tied to Aaron through his sister, Elisheva, wife of Aaron (Exodus 6:23), linking Judah to priesthood. As Judah’s prince—home to David’s line—Nachshon’s prominence may echo tales of his bravery, preserved alongside ancient poems like the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1–18), whose archaic style suggests early origins, according to documentary scholars.

Notice, by the way, how the Jewish tradition is rarely impressed by a mere display of physical courage. Nachshon’s faith at the Red Sea, like David’s psalms or Samson’s sacrifice, blends action with devotion. David is not only a fierce fighter, but also the author of many psalms. The physical superhero Samson has taken the Nazirite oath, and ultimately perishes in an act of martyrdom.

Judah’s Ascendancy in the Written Bible

After the Northern Kingdom’s destruction, the Kingdom of Judah emerged as the surviving Israelite polity. Jerusalem, the city of David, served as Judah’s capital and home to the Temple. The compilers of the Hebrew Bible were time travelers themselves, drawing on ancient writings and oral traditions. They shaped their presentation of their earlier sources in light of the history that had unfolded by their time—around 500 BCE—their contemporary reality, and their hopes for the future.

Some scholars argue that the Song of the Sea (Exodus 15:1–18) is among the Bible’s oldest material, possibly dating back three thousand years. The compilers might have drawn inspiration from the Song of the Sea, with later rabbis weaving Nachshon, Judah’s chieftain, into the story of the crossing.

Nachston, however, was not merely invented.  He is referred to five times in the written Hebrew bible, where he appears as the leader of the tribe of Judah during the Exodus period and as the first chieftan to sacrifice at the altar in the Tabernacle.

Judah himself is portrayed as a leader who takes responsibility; he is pivotal in saving Joseph from immediate death, and later is crucial in the reconciliation of Joseph, now Prime Minister of Egypt, with his brothers. When Joseph is testing the brothers by planting a silver cup in Benjamin’s baggage, it is Judah who steps up and offers to take any punishment that might be inflicted.

Nacshon as as Link in a Distinguished Lineage

Nachshon’s story travels through genealogies, connecting the Exodus to redemption. A descendant of Judah, Nachshon was an ancestor of heroes, including King David (Ruth 4:22) and Daniel of Lion’s Den fame.  David’s line, tradition holds, will ultimately yield the Messiah, carrying Nachshon’s legacy forward.

Nachshon Today

Though not in the standard Haggadah, Nachshon continues to inspire Passover retellings: Debbie Friedman’s “Nachshon’s Song,” Rachel Barenblat’s poem “Nachshon” (70 Faces, 2011), and Nachshon, Who Was Afraid to Swim (2009) by Deborah Bodin Cohen. In Yiddish, “zayn a Nachshon” (זיין אַ נחשון) means acting boldly. These works, from Debbie Friedman’s “Nachshon’s Song” to Israel’s Operation Nachshon (1948), Kibbutz Nahshon, Nachshon Street, and the IDF’s Nahshon Battalion, celebrate Nachshon’s bold faith, inspiring action across generations.

The Cup of Elijah – and Nachshon Tomorrow

At the Seder, we fill the Cup of Elijah. The Bible tells us this ancient prophet was taken alive to Heaven (2 Kings 2:11), waiting to return and announce the Messiah’s arrival. Tradition does not name the Messiah, but it declares he will come from the House of David (Jeremiah 23:5). In the Messiah, our past and present tribulations, our hopes for the future, will find vindication. Perhaps Nachshon himself will live again—not only in scripture and lore, but as a redeemer who is himself redeemed.